(CNN) – Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Illinois, a strong proponent of comprehensive immigration reform, said that he's disappointed in President Barack Obama's refusal to visit the southern U.S. border with Mexico.

"It does bother me,” he said on CNN’s “Crossfire” about Obama not visiting the border. “I wish the President of the United States were going down [to the border] and visiting the children and visiting the site tonight."

Gutierrez also distanced himself from the Obama administration's proposal to alleviate the border crisis, adding, "I have some serious questions."

Gutierrez later clarified that he would support the President's proposal conditionally, "As long as it doesn't…weaken the right that the children have to their day in court because some of them we may just return them to death."

He said he would not support legislation by fellow Democrat, Rep. Henry Cuellar, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn, both of Texas, to repeal the 2008 law that allows juveniles from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala to stay and apply for asylum instead of facing immediate deportation like Mexican citizens do.

Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Oklahoma, suggested the Obama administration's policies were to blame for the escalating violence and child trafficking in northern Mexico.

"It's all because we have an easy access point into the United States of America and you can't deny that when you see what is happening on our southern border right now," Bridenstine said.

soundoff(24 Responses)

he can't win... no one was killed..no hurricane..no drownings......... if he goes .. they will criticize and say.. its a photo op.. if he doesn't they will still moan...

July 9, 2014 08:03 pm at 8:03 pm |

Thomas

Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Oklahoma, suggested the Obama administration's policies were to blame for the escalating violence and child trafficking in northern Mexico.

It's so easy to point fingers !

July 9, 2014 08:06 pm at 8:06 pm |

Smitty

Didn't Obambi promise all the Latin people he was going to do immigration reform his 1st year ??? OOOOPs!!
Remember he had both the house and senate, but felt it was more important to go party on Air Force One. Total lack of leadership skills come to mind.

Da, everybody In the COUNTRY knows what's happening on the boarder, Obama doesn't need to go to the boarder , just like you or me. It's just more GOP BS , and ZyOU GOP LZoSERS NEED to be KICKED OUT of OFFICE in November!!!!!!!! We are SICK of your GOP BS and we will show you in November, GOP MORONS!!!!!!!

July 9, 2014 08:18 pm at 8:18 pm |

H. Douglas Walker

There are no easy answers here. If we deport the children and their mothers back to the Central American countries where they fled from they could have a very uncertain future there with the murders and the death squads in those countries. If we allow them to stay we will be adding down the road possibly thousands and thousands of more people who may have little job skills and abilities to be nothing more than low paying wage earners in this country. The amount of people living in poverty or near poverty will increase. No matter what we decide as a nation the results of our decisions may not be good for the young children and their mothers.

July 9, 2014 08:19 pm at 8:19 pm |

DRAKE MALLARD

Some of those people boosting the Texas economy come illegally across the border. According to the Texas Association of Business, illegal immigrant labor pumps in about $17 billion a year which in turn also creates more jobs.

Ted Cruz and Mario Diaz-Balart,leana Ros-Lehtinen. marco rubio/other
cubans have credibility on immigration issues when they advocates that
immigrants from other countries are treated the same as those from their
homeland – Cuba. So either grant automatic legal status as soon as they
set foot on American soil, or make Cubans go through the same process
as any other immigrant. Until then, just another hypocrite.

There should not be a "wet foot, dry foot" policy. Cubans should be subject to
the same immigration requirements as any other would be immigrant. No
special treatment.

July 9, 2014 08:25 pm at 8:25 pm |

g

when is the united states going to get tough with MEXICO

July 9, 2014 08:28 pm at 8:28 pm |

Gurgyl

Illegal? Deport. Simple.

July 9, 2014 08:51 pm at 8:51 pm |

Chris..E.al

The border is the want 2 be ace in the hole to keep dems in con trolll .

July 9, 2014 09:39 pm at 9:39 pm |

smith

Wake up says-Too bad I'll never stop calling them out. I'm a child of the 70's when the saying was " Black is Beautiful"! And say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud!!!!😊😊😊😊

Your right, black is beautiful and you should be proud of who you are but aren't all races beautiful? Tom l and myself have been tough on Obama and yourself but its not because the color of your skin but our political differences. Some people are against Obama because of his skin color but one of our core missions is to let people know that we aren't like that. We may give you heck for playing the so called race card but it is so you don' t think we are opposed to Obama's policies for any other reasons but political differences.

July 9, 2014 10:14 pm at 10:14 pm |

2_indy1600

This is a slow moving Katrina with contagious diseases. No amount of money thrown at the border can fix this. Repeal the law, secure the border with national guard. Time to start taking care of vets and seniors...and how about kids in Chicago? The president is dining on $10,000 a plate barbeque tonight. Even Bush had the integrity to fly over the disaster area. The man is a menace.

It would be cheaper to give each of the detained illegal immigrants a first class airplane ticket than pass Obama's multi-BILLION dollar proposal. Why does Obama insist on spending our tax dollars to benefit criminals?

That is absolute hogwash. The kids on the border were brought to America........by Obama and his regime. There is no need to visit the border.........be Obama already KNOWS the trute situation, and how the kids got there, in the first place.

amazing how the gop skips over the fact this is a George bush law being taken advantage of, just blame Obama, the Republican voters won't know the difference, their very light in the facts department, which explains the problem entirely.

I don't care what any of these traitors say the President knows exactly what is going on at the border. Every single day Fox News is advertising to the entire world that they can sneak across the border and find Nirvana. What I want to know is why are they all so gung-ho to get him down there? Hell no he shouldn't go I bet his advisors are telling him the same. I don't trust any of them. They hate his guts. I read the hate right here all damn day long. In their eyes he's inferior and shouldn't be the POTUS and for that reason alone, he should stay the hell away from TX period. It won't matter either way, he will still be bashed by the GOP and their MSM. He's damned if he do, damned if he don't. So I say err on the side of caution.

Smith... Speak for yourself. While your comments toward the POTUS are bad most of Mr. I'm always rights comments are downright nasty and I have his number. He's very typical of what I see all the time. Please stop trying to walk in my shoes because you'll never ever know what it feels like. Neither of you have ever given President Obama praise for anything. Nothing he does is right. It takes a strong man to be in his position and be treated like an inferior, completely disrespected daily and still show up with a smile on his face. Also your buddy supports Rand Paul who is against civil rights, so he and I will never see eye to eye. Nor do I care to. Which is why I almost never read his comments. No one is right all of the time and I can't stand a person that thinks they are.

July 10, 2014 08:23 am at 8:23 am |

jpmichigan

Out of sight, out of mind, philosophy. The President may know what going on, and then again he always states " he just found out on the television or newspapers." His advisors run the government, while he is doing what he does best, campaigning, fundraising and having photo-op moments.

July 10, 2014 08:31 am at 8:31 am |

an Iowan

The GOP caused this by their failure to act when called upon by the President over the last several years.
The blame for the immigration crisis belongs to Boehner and his do-nothing cronies!

July 10, 2014 08:41 am at 8:41 am |

Really??

This is a real crisis like Katrina but the media will not portray it as such since they LOVE Obama. People are dying trying to get to and over the boarder that Obama has indicated is open. it is an extremely dangerous journey and yes, Obama has indicated it is open through lack of action. The border must be secured with the National Guard before any immigration reform is possible. if it isn't then you have a moving target and nothing can be voted on. Obamas word don't mean squat anymore since it's all lies to begin with. He plays pool while diseased illegals are left to wonder our streets because it is a manufactured crisis by him. don't be upset that he is enjoying his fund raising time, this is exactly what he wanted and what all the people that voted for him deserve. He's a community organizer for crying out loud! The rest of us just have to hold our noses and wait until this country has a President.

July 10, 2014 08:42 am at 8:42 am |

Bill from GA

Does anyone think the President doesn't know what is going on? What will his presence accomplish? If you want theater, go to Broadway.

Allegedly, the violence in Central America, and even Mexico, is the result of drug gangs. We saw this in the 1920's in the USA with alcohol, and solved it by getting government out of peoples everyday life.

July 10, 2014 08:45 am at 8:45 am |

Rudy NYC

I had wondered the same thing. Why not visit the border? Suddenly, the cynic in me kicked in and showed me the light. What is the President going to do down there if he does go? He would need to be really smart about what he does, and more importantly what he does not do.

Unfortunately, the last thing that the President needs to do is to visit the children. The right wing would take that photo and run with it as proof of their conspiracy theories. "Obama welcomes migrants into United States." They would say. He could get away with a pep talk to agents and people working there. But, he needs to stay as far as possible from the detainees.

July 10, 2014 08:52 am at 8:52 am |

smith

@Wake up-No one is trying to walk in anybodys shoes but their own. Having political differences or disagreements with someone of a different race doesn`t make you a racist. If that were true we would all be racist. Yes, there are bigots and racist out there but if you don`t think Clinton and Bush were disrespected your in complete denial.

July 10, 2014 09:01 am at 9:01 am |

Lynda/Minnesota

Bill from GA
Does anyone think the President doesn't know what is going on? What will his presence accomplish? If you want theater, go to Broadway.
--------------

To be frank, Bill, I actually DO think that GOPerville collectively thinks that their non stop swipes (be it his birth certificate, his background, his wife, his political ideologies, his (the list goes on and on) effects him on a emotional level.) Apparently they are themselves so full of low self esteem that they can't understand that not everyone, certainly not the man elected as President of the United States twice, sits and spends valuable time worrying over what the "emotionally insecure" rants about him day after day after day after day after day after day 24/7 X 6 years.

That they feel the need to do so 24/7 X 6 years is in itself enlightening; and not to their benefit.